Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 1/2 ton diesel truck becomes reality

I had a 2003 Chevy that had 245000 on it when I got rid of it and bought the Ram.
This Ram smokes my old PU for power. It also smokes the 97 GMC Suburban I still have.
107000 on it.
The Ram is getting 16 empty right now and has 5000 on it. 6 speed auto in it.
The Chevy got 17 empty.
The Sub is 17 also.

We will see if the Ram can treat me as well in the low maintenance department after a couple hundred thousand.

So big deal. That new Ram would be a complete t#rd if it couldn't smoke either of those vehicles.

Have I hit a nerve of some kind?

Facts are facts.

It would out pull them both, if they were all new today.....

Have a great evening, Ackman.

I can't believe there's a "brain" on here that thinks at an equal 400lb torque output level a motor running 4500-5000rpm will equal a motor producing the same at 2-400rpm!

I'm not a big diesel lover, they're stinky, the trucks they put them in ride like tanks & the fuel is expensive where as the newer gas 1/2tons ride beautiful & produce amazing power & enough torque to do most jobs & get good gas mileage. Sure a dedicated heavy tow rig should be diesel, but repair costs are terrible, & I see them more & more on newer Cummins diesels, I've seen them require a new head, fuel pump problems & the latest was a water pump at almost $500 + labour, fortunately slipped in just under the warranty cut-of! & that's not counting front end running gear troubles inherent in 3/4tons.
A 1/2ton diesel with a turbo 4 cylinder might be a real nice option for someone needing moderate towing/pleasure vehicle mix....IF they can upgrade the reliability issues the newer diesels seem to be having.....

All IMHO of course

I get as much as 24 mpg out of a Ford f350 with a 7.3 now with a few mods. A 1/2 ton needs to get over 30 mpg to be able to compete. Car manufacturers can't really mess with the EPA and it has been one of the obstacles to building more diesels in the US. The technology is beginning to flourish and even winning in racing circles like the 24 hours of LeMans.

I expect great things from diesels in the future and will never be without one. Tuners can be used to overcome the factory settings required to pass the smog regs. You didn't hear that from me.

EPA is already all over that, just read an article of how they fined Edge $500k for their DPF delete tunes.

Not to mention the fact that the manufacturer will void your warranty for installing a tuner, etc.

Uh, I think you got your numbers backward.
$10000 more for the motor and 1 ton.
.60 more per gallon for fuel.
The smoker needs to get ALOT better mileage to catch up.
They both work.

Much more bang for the buck with diesel in terms of the ease of achieving real power gains for comparatively low dollars. Simple programming can produce very big gains in hp and torque. On the earlier 5.9 CR engines (2003-2005) about $800.00 would get you a 150hp and over 450 lb/ft bump with a TST Powermax tuner. No $800.00 mod to a Hemi could come close.

That's what you'd want.

Very true. Torque is what pulls and there's no way a gas truck will ever get anywhere near the torque of a diesel. And it's easy getting more out of them, no need to even pull the heads. Build a gas engine to equal tuner diesel hp is a complete teardown and it'll still have half the torque, a lousy power curve, and mileage will be crap. And much less fun to drive. There's just no comparison.

Just to throw in my two cents: My last truck was a 99 half - ton Chevy with the 5.3 gas V8. I never hauled or towed more than about 4K lbs. I noticed fuel economy drop significantly with a load however, and power did as well. My best fuel economy with this truck was around 17 MPG. The worst was towing a Saturn car on a car trailer. (8 MPG.)

On the other hand, my current truck is an 02 Chevy 2500 HD with the 6.6 liter Duramax diesel and Allison tranny. The truck alone weighs around 7500 lbs. The absolute lowest fuel economy I have ever seen was 14.8 MPG, dragging a boat and trailer combo around 10K lbs. through mountains. The highest - 22.1 MPG.

Obviously diesel produces more power, more efficiently than gas. As someone else mentioned - if gas engines were more efficient, every Peterbilt and Kenworth in America would run on gas.

Diesel has it's place - towing, hauling and POWER.

So does gas - cheap transportation, which is why my daily driver is an 99 Cavalier.

Need some gina lotion?
Jeff-O can help.

+100

Mossy,
Have you ever looked at a Dyno sheet? If so you notice that HP are made at high RPM ranges. Ranges that are well past highway cruising speeds. While TQ numbers are highest at lower RPMs, in ranges where actual cruising speeds occur.

Back in 95, I had a 92 model K1500 with the 5.7. Some of my buddies and I went to NM elk hunting with all our camping gear and 4 quads. I pulled the quads on a 16' trailer, one of my buddies pulled the trailer with the camping gear. We figured about equal loads. He was driving a 95 Dodge with the 5.9 cummins. I had 215 HP and about 250 torque. He was rated a 160 hp and 400 torque. Bottom line is, he could run off and leave me and got twice the mileage I got on that trip. Torque at a low rpm is what matters. I now have a DMAX.

The Ford 3.2 ltr diesel will first appear in a van. I wonder where they will go after that. There was a rumor about 2002 that Ford was going to bring out a small diesel for the 150 and it didn't happen.

I want to see a Toyota Tacoma diesel.. Hopefully this will push Toyota in that direction. They already have a emissions compliant diesel ready to go.

I could really go for a diesel Tacoma. Perfect for putting around the hills, and pulling a boat on the highway.

I have heard that the HI-Lux with the Toyotas D4D diesel engine get around 30mpg.
The only thing I dislike about my 13 Tacoma is the mileage sucks for a small truck.